Mark Pope calls for more toughness after Kentucky's "incredibly disappointing" loss to Georgia

There’s no way to spin it: Kentucky’s 82-69 loss to Georgia stunk. Coming off one of their best wins of the season, the No. 6 Cats turned in a clunker, failing their first SEC road test in disappointing fashion.

As in the losses to Clemson and Ohio State, Kentucky struggled against Georgia’s physical play, allowing the Bulldogs to win the rebounding battle 41-34 and get to the line twice as often. Georgia was 29-38 from the charity stripe tonight, Kentucky 15-19. With all that foul trouble and stoppage, the Cats struggled to get into a flow, shooting just 37.5% from the floor and 24.0% from three, the second-worst marks of the season behind the loss to Ohio State. Mark Pope sounded as disturbed by tonight’s loss as the one the Cats took in New York a few weeks ago.

“This one, it hurts,” he told Tom Leach. “It’s incredibly disappointing.”

Pope mentioned rebounding early and often when discussing what his team did wrong in Athens, once again pointing to the offensive glass, which has eluded the Cats at times this season. Georgia had 13 offensive rebounds to Kentucky’s 12, leading to 17 second-chance points for the Bulldogs.

“The glass was a huge thing. One thing about the glass is it lets you play slow and extend possessions and you force up tough shots at the end of kind of a hold-the-ball possession and give up an offensive rebound. So starting with the glass, really, really problematic.”

“This is the second straight game we’ve given up 15 offensive rebounds, and that’s a massive issue.”

What keeps happening to the Cats in games like this? Pope said his team needs to learn how to tune out distractions, especially in road environments.

“Our guys know what we’re supposed to do; they know what their job is. We’re physically capable to some level of being able to do what we’re supposed to do but with everything going on in the court, you know, you end up being distracted by what just happened and not focused on that moment and that’s just a real thing. It’s just what it is.

“Some people call it toughness. Some people call it fight. Some people call it emotion, but what real toughness is, is being able to do your job in the moment from second to second to second. That’s actually toughness. And we didn’t have that on great display today.”

Kentucky goes back on the road Saturday to face No. 14 Mississippi State, a much better and more physical team than Georgia. What can they do between now and then to avoid a second straight loss?

“It’s drilling it. It’s making as many habits as you can. It’s understanding what you’re facing. You know, especially when you go on the road, it’s being tied in together. It’s all ingredients that we have. But, man, we’re going to face challenges throughout the season. Every single game is going to expose us in one way or another, and us answering those challenges is the whole deal. That’s what this all is.”